Social Protection Specialist(Cash Transfer), P3, Appointment, Cotonou/Benin

Contract

This is a P-3 contract. This kind of contract is known as Professional and Director staff. It is normally internationally recruited only. It's a staff contract. It usually requires 5 years of experience, depending on education.

Salary

The salary for this job should be between 106,300 USD and 139,192 USD.

Please keep in mind that the salary displayed here is an estimation by UN Talent based on the location and the type of contract. It may vary depending on the organization. The recruiter should be able to inform you about the exact salary range. In case the job description contains another salary information, please refer to this one.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, [insert tagline]

Since January 2019, Benin Government and UNICEF Country Office have been implementing a new program of cooperation 2019-2023 that aims to support national efforts to give children and adolescents – especially the most disadvantaged – equal opportunities to access and use basic services. To help achieve this goal, UNICEF Benin has received support from the Government of Netherlands to support the Government of Benin with designing and implementing a Cash Plus Care program. The objective of this program is to contribute to ending child marriage through improved access to decentralized basic social services and social protection for adolescent girls while strengthening the social and child protection systems and promoting positive social norms to eradicate the practice involving parents, caregivers, young people, community leaders and influencers. Indeed, many girls in Benin are forced into marriage before they are physically and emotionally mature to become a wife or a mother. 3 in 10 women aged 20 to 49 years were married before the age of 18 and 1 in 10 before 15 years with huge disparities by departments. The phenomenon affects more girls in the northern part of the country. There are several reasons for this situation, including high levels of poverty, gender inequalities, high school-drop rates, particularly for girls, lack of knowledge of child rights, and harmful social norms. The Cash Plus Care program aims to end child marriage through impacting these underlying causes of child marriage in Benin.

How can you make a difference?

In this context, UNICEF Benin seeks a Social Protection/ Cash Transfer Specialist with prior experience in design, implementation and M&E of cash transfers programs, including programs integrated with the delivery of basic social services. Under the general guidance of the supervisor, the incumbent is responsible for providing dedicated technical and capacity support for the effective design, roll-out and implementation of the Cash Plus Care Programme. This includes the implementation of 3 main activities: (i) design and planning of the unconditional cash transfer (UCT) component; (ii) ensure the synergy with Care component including the gender transformative package; and (iii) monitoring, evaluation, generation of evidence and policy documents, building a strong partnership at local and national levels for the expansion and long-term sustainability of the Cash Plus care Programme.

This position will work under the overall guidance of the Chief of Social Policy Programme, with support of the Social Policy Specialist and the Chief of Child Protection, in close collaboration with UNICEF Benin country office’s sections and regional offices.

The incumbent may be assigned the primarily, shared, or contributory accountabilities for all or part of the following areas of major duties and key end-results.

1. Technical capacity and coordination support for the design of the unconditional Cash Transfer component. This activity includes the following duties:

• During an inception phase, conduct a deep analysis of Cash Plus Care Programme which will, among others, refine the theory of change supporting the Cash Plus Care Programme, identify the adequate design features including the transfer level and UCT recipients, and social assistance delivery mechanism under the leadership of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Microfinance (MASM) and in close collaboration with national and sub-national governments taking into account synergies with social protection programs in place (ACCESS, SWEDD, etc.),

• Support the development an integrated M&E framework as well as the institutional framework for implementation, the roles of the stakeholders in particular lines ministries, and the mechanisms for the mid-term evaluation and the final evaluation

• Identify anticipated Risks and develop mitigation measures.

• Support the design of the integrated social and gender norms package including the framework for participatory community engagement

• Elaborate an operations manual and implementation roadmap of the cash package in target communes and coordinate the mapping of materials, tools, and implementation plans of the different sectoral interventions planned

• Review the institutional and operational capacity of MASM to deliver the Cash plus Care programme, in particular the cash component and in cash transfer interventions in emergency context.

• Develop a capacity building plan of national and decentralized partners to successfully implement the Cash component of Cash plus Care Programme in cash transfer interventions in emergency context.

• Propose a plan to scale-up the Cash Plus Care Programme.

2. Technical capacity support for the Implementation of Cash Plus Care Programme

• Support the implementation of operations manual of the Cash Plus care Programme in target communes

• Support the implementation of the capacity building plan of national and decentralized partners in close collaboration with the government lead

3. Partnership, Coordination and Collaboration for Cash Pus Care Programme

• Ensure the Social Protection and Gender technical and financial partners are kept appraised, and synergies are built with existing programs, including in in cash transfer interventions in emergency context.

• Actively participate and represent UNICEF in nationwide coordination forums and sub-national coordination when/where needed, with a particular focus on cash transfer interventions in emergency context.

• Propose to supervisor potential partnerships and collaboration with internal and external counterparts, including those of the UN and national partners, in order to improve the ability to collect and disseminate development data and information, exchange information on programme/project status and implementation.

• Collaborate with the Operations Section to establish and maintain sound internal controls supportive of programming endeavors and to coordinate financial management requirements and accountability.

• Ensure operational linkages between the Cash Plus Care programme, and cash transfer interventions in emergency, with relevant UNICEF sectorial activities including Child Protection, Education, Health, WASH, as well as the Dutch Embassy, the WB, UN System etc.

4. Monitoring, evaluation and knowledge management of Cash Plus care Programme

• Ensure the M&E framework implementation

• Support to government to monitor the implementation of Cash Plus Care Programme through Programme visits, quarterly, middle and annual reviews

• Prepare relevant programme reports required for management, donors, budget reviews, programme analysis, annual reports, etc. Support improved monitoring and research around cash plus care programme impact on child outcomes and use of data and research findings for strengthened Programme results

• Lead the development of periodic narrative et financial reports on lessons learned and good practices from the implementation of Cash Plus care Programme.

• Produce relevant knowledge management products on the Cash plus Care activities, and in cash transfer interventions in emergency context, through data collection and analysis, complete and accurate reporting as well as generating and documenting lessons learned;

• Manage a comprehensive and up to date repository of all tools utilized in the implementation of the Cash Plus Care Programme such as the operations manual, risk assessment matrix, M&E framework and tools and training packages.

• Conduct regular operational analysis of the programme, identify areas of poor performance, bottlenecks, and identify solutions such as design improvements, additional trainings and technical support.

• Take appropriate actions to optimize use of programme funds. Ensure programme efficiency and delivery through a rigorous and transparent approach to programme planning, monitoring and evaluation.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• An advanced university degree in international development, Public Policy, Social Sciences, International Relations, Political Science, or another relevant technical field.
• A minimum of five years of relevant professional work experience designing, implementing and managing a social protection/cash transfer programme, including in emergency context, is required.
• Experience working in a developing country is required.
• Knowledge about and experience coordinating with government owned and/or donor-funded social assistance programmes Strong knowledge of social protection policy debates and evidence is required. Experience in multi-stakeholder co-ordination and facilitation.
• Ability to work independently and respond to feedback in a timely and professional manner.
• Experience in coordinating evaluation and research around social protection programmes a strong asset Familiarity with UNICEF's programmes a strong asset Background and/or familiarity with emergency is considered as an asset.
• Fluency in French and English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language or a local language is considered as an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: https://uni.cf/UNICEFValues

UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships (2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (3) Drive to achieve results for impact (4) Innovates and embraces change (5) Manages ambiguity and complexity (6) Thinks and acts strategically (7) Works collaboratively with others.

[add the 8th competency (Nurtures, leads and manages people) for supervisory role]

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic. We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements. UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

[Remove below text if not a child safeguarding elevated risk role]

[If applicable] This position has been assessed as an elevated risk role for Child Safeguarding purposes as it is either: a role with direct contact with children, works directly with child, is a safeguarding response role or has been assessed as an elevated risk role for child safeguarding. Additional vetting and assessment for elevated risk roles in child safeguarding (potentially including additional criminal background checks) applies.

UNICEF’s active commitment towards diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable [Insert diversity profile] are encouraged to apply.

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments are also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.